I'm an international student and I did my undergrad in the United States (4.0 GPA) and I am still trying to decide which law schools I should apply for. My LSAT is good (177) and my resume/extra curriculars/story are all pretty good too (my family and I migrated to my home country as refugees, I've done volunteering work for NGO's etc., lots of really good work experience and stuff).

I am in the pretty good situation now where money is not the biggest issue for my family. My parents started their own business after we migrated and it grew to the point where they sold it and they are retired now and funding my education etc. I have wanted to study law and become a lawyer for as long as I can remember so law school is a natural next step for me.

After graduating I would probably like to work in an NGO or doing work for community organisations and eventually open up my own practice where I can provide some more affordable legal aid to people from lower socioeconomic groups. Essentially, I am currently trying to decide which law school to go to and would like some advice on the student life aspect of things. In my undergrad I had no life, studying all the time and made very few friends throughout my degree. I would like to go to a law school with a good social life, where there is reasonable time to go out, get involved in extra curricular activities (not necessarily all career based ones), and have a generally good social life where the law school cohort is pretty close and people become good friends etc. I graduated from my bachelors degree early and life sort of just slipped me by while i was studying away and I regret not making the most of it. I know law school is one of the most demanding post graduate degrees but I still thought I would ask this question as there is very little information on this topic online. If any of you guys went to a T14 school or any school in the top 20 and could tell me about your experiences on the social life terms of things it would be much appreciated! and any things you have heard or know from other people/friends/peers would also be a great help. Social life will of course not be the biggest or only factor in my decision when the time comes, but it is still something important and I would like to hear peoples opinions.

Your social life during your first year will be brutal if you don't develop good time management skills. However, I would venture to say that there are a lot of opportunities for Bar Review (social hangout at a bar for law school studies) and a good nightlife. Granted, I went to law school in DC, so the nightlife is pretty good. Invariably, you also become good friends with people at the law school because there are many opportunities for community.

With your numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up at Yale or Harvard. If you end up at Harvard, there will likely be a good amount of socializing as Boston is not far way with clubs, bars, museums, etc. If you end up at Yale, your social life will likely be hindered somewhat as New Haven isn't really a happening spot, in terms of nightlife. But, I do suspect that there are many affinity groups at Yale where you can make friends based on commonality.

Lastly, during Finals period, your social life will definitely be stunted. You'll be studying, outlining, and committing black letter law to memory (if a closed book exam), so just make sure you know that.

you'll have fun wherever you go if you're a fun person. you'll have a shit time wherever you go if you're a depressed person.

if you're looking for advice like "cambridge is more fun than philly but don't sleep on durham and charlottesville if you like craft beer and a small town vibe" then you're making decisions based on the wrong factors.

pancakes3 wrote:you'll have fun wherever you go if you're a fun person. you'll have a shit time wherever you go if you're a depressed person.

if you're looking for advice like "cambridge is more fun than philly but don't sleep on durham and charlottesville if you like craft beer and a small town vibe" then you're making decisions based on the wrong factors.

In your situation, schools without grades are the best for student life. If Yale (or any other highly ranked non-graded school) accepts you, then you must go. Grades are the reason 1ls are depressed and stressed in law school. Your 4.0 gpa and 177 lsat won't guarantee that you will ace law school, although you are likely to do very well.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say NYU. The people I've known there seem to have a great time, and there are a lot of people who are also into NGO / public service type stuff, so you can hang with people who are into the same stuff as you. NYC is hard to beat in terms of going out. And finally, you could probably get a sweet scholarship. Leaving your parents with that cash will feel really good (and maybe they will agree to fund a down payment, or help you rent a kick-ass NYC apartment, or give you lots of spending money instead of paying a ton of tuition).

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:If you have a 4.0/177 and money is truly not an issue, get ready for HYS.

That's not what the question was. OP wanted to know about quality of life at top 20 schools.

I'm a 0L, so I'll have to defer here

1L has a material effect on your quality of life. YS are TCR. No (real) grades and easy to get a job out of. Harvard is still competitive.

It's basically the hunger games everywhere else. The lower down the rankings you go, the more competitive it's going to be (in general).

I was at CCN and it wasn't so bad. 1L as a terrible life is overblown. It's not that bad at all. If you keep on top of your work, it's only the last 3 weeks of the semesters that will sucks, but overall it's not terrible. All you gotta do is sit there and read about stuff that you should find at least a little interesting if you decided that you want to be a lawyer

edwardt1988 wrote: All you gotta do is sit there and read about stuff that you should find at least a little interesting if you decided that you want to be a lawyer

I'm only in my first semester of 1L now, and this absolutely seems to be the case. I heard all these horror stories about 1L, but it's really not any more intense than my undergrad. The only thing that makes it feel even marginally more stressful than undergrad is the fact that 20% of my section are gunners who freak out about way too many things.